Ati Hd 3650

R

remi

Guest
I have a PC with a Skystar 2, that can play SD satellite channels but when playing BBC HD channel the picture stutters and freezes. If I was to upgrade the graphics card to the ATI HD 3650, will this allow me to play the BBC HD channel as it is claimed that it has “Unified Video Decoder (UVD) for Blu-ray™ and HD DVD at full HD 1080p”. Does this mean that hardware for decoding the video stream is on the graphics card and it will play the BBC HD channel.

My current set-up:

Processor = AMD Athlon 64 3000 @ 2.2GHz
Graphics = Ati Radeon 1600 Pro
Skystar 2 DVB-S

Hoping to upgrade the graphics card to ATI Radeon HD 3650. (Only if it will allow to play BBC HD)

Processor = AMD Athlon 64 3000 @ 2.2GHz
Graphics = Ati Radeon HD 3650
Skystar 2 DVB-S

Will the new set-up allow me to receive the BBC HD channel.
 
The HD 3650 does indeed have hardware accerleration, mine plays Blu Ray at 1080i no problems, so it should solve your problem, but whether it will solve your problem really depends on whats causing it. You could have a Codec issue.

Have you check your CPU usage whilst watching BBC HD? If it's flat out then the new card probably would solve it.
 
I believe the HD3450 has the same UVD engine, unless you want the extra gaming oomph I'd go for that over the HD3650.
 
Thank you for your replies:

The HD 3650 does indeed have hardware accerleration, mine plays Blu Ray at 1080i no problems, so it should solve your problem, but whether it will solve your problem really depends on whats causing it. You could have a Codec issue.

Have you check your CPU usage whilst watching BBC HD? If it's flat out then the new card probably would solve it.

The CPU is at 100%. Do BBC HD and Blu Ray use the same video codec. What about my CPU is that powerful enough to play BBC HD channel.

I believe the HD3450 has the same UVD engine, unless you want the extra gaming oomph I'd go for that over the HD3650.

I only need it to watch the BBC HD and also in future if C4 and ITV start a HD channel. Is the 3450 UVD engine as powerful as the more expensive 3650 UVD.
 
Thank you for your replies:



The CPU is at 100%. Do BBC HD and Blu Ray use the same video codec. What about my CPU is that powerful enough to play BBC HD channel.



I only need it to watch the BBC HD and also in future if C4 and ITV start a HD channel. Is the 3450 UVD engine as powerful as the more expensive 3650 UVD.

I'm pretty sure that Blu Ray uses H264 and I know that BBC HD does, I opted for the 3650 because I heard that it handled 1080 resolutions better, and also on one of the manufactures websites they recommended the 3650 for such resolutions.

I'm not sure on your CPU, the new graphics card should take a lot of load off of it though.
 
I have now purchased a ATI HD 3450 PCI-E card, it arrived today. I can now watch clearly and smoothly, BBC HD, Luxe HD and ITV HD (Only colour bars at the moment) as the video decoding is being passed on to the GPU.

The CPU usage varies between 10/15 percent (before it was 100 percent) and the GPU usage is also around 7/20 percent.

There is one problem, I have connected the PC using RGB component cable and the only settings available in the ATI CCC are for NTSC TV (1920x1080i 30). Is it possible to set it to UK Pal (1920x1080i 25), if it is any advise on how to achieve this will be greatly appreciated.
 

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